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Lobster Outlets

Lobster cutlets made from lobster meat, breaded and fried, served hot with parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lobster Outlets

4 or 5 cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lobster

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster and pound it in a mortar with the coral.

  2. Smash the shell and place it in a saucepan.

  3. Cover the shell with water and boil for 30 minutes, then strain and add the liquid to the meat.

  4. Add the butter, pepper, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg to the meat and beat until smooth.

Shape and coat

  1. Divide the mixture into 4 or 5 equal parts, flatten each into the shape of a cutlet, and stick a small piece of claw into the end of each.

  2. Beat the egg and dip the cutlets in it.

  3. Cover the cutlets with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Melt the clarified fat in a frying pan, and when hot, place the cutlets in and fry until golden brown.

  2. Pour melted butter into the center of a small dish, arrange the cutlets around it, and garnish with fried parsley.

  3. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main body of the cutlets, giving them their flavor and tender, meaty texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the lobster mixture, keeping the cutlets tender when cooked.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs adhere to the cutlets before frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the cutlets are fried.
Clarified dripping fat
Conducts heat for frying, browning the crumb coating evenly and adding savory flavor.

The step that matters

Frying the coated cutlets in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the crumbs absorb oil and turn greasy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the coating quickly, forming a crust that holds the delicate lobster filling together.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, butter, pepper, egg, bread, parsley):

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, butter, pepper, egg, bread, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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